The present invention relates to retarding and restraining devices and methods, and more particularly to devices and methods for arresting moving objects within a limited space.
Aircraft are frequently utilized in environments in which there is limited area available for recovery or arrestment of the aircraft, so that a normal landing is not feasible. For example, remotely piloted vehicles can be controlled from non-aviation ships which do not provide sufficient area for the vehicle to make a landing thereon. Thus, such vehicles often enter the water, especially while recovery is attempted, resulting in costly repairs or loss of the entire aircraft. Various devices have been utilized for landing fixed-wing aircraft within limited areas which include a cross arm or horizontal beam rotatably supported at its center or midpoint by a tower, and configured at one end to engage the flying aircraft. The use of a balanced cross arm, or of a single arm so rotatably supported near one end and provided there with a counterweight, or of a counterweight on a cross arm, permits the arm to remain in the same flat plane throughout its rotation, usually one perpendicular to the tower and parallel to sea level. Another such device for this purpose includes a single arm rotatably supported by a tower and whose outer end is gradually lowered to the ground as a fixed-wing aircraft captured and thereby connected thereto loses speed. While such devices have served the purpose, they have not proven entirely satisfactory because of the tendency of a flying aircraft, when engaged by an arm which is static with respect to the aircraft or moving more slowly than the aircraft, to swing or pendulate about that arm, which can cause damage to the aircraft and to any cargo or passengers disposed therein.